Linseed Oil, Boiled Linseed Oil, and Tung. Head to Head Test!

jimenez

jimenez

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Alright folks, I've read lots and lots of back and fourth about Linseed oil, boiled linseed, and tung oil. Some are authentic, some better, some ran out in the war, whatever. But im sick of the arguing! Lets test it out!

I picked up beautiful chunk of clear walnut 1 x 6. I cut four 2.75" x 2.75" chunks to test out LIN, BLO, and TUNG. I plan on putting many coats on each, seeing how they are to work with, how the finnish looks and feels. Then doing some tests with heat, moisture, and cutting open the test samples to check for penentration. If you guys have any ideass let me know.

All the oil is applied by hand: just rubbed on. Then allowed to sit for 20 mins then wiped off with a lint free cloth.

Yes I know linseed rags burst into flames! Got it. Thanks.

There are four samples. Control: I wont touch it. LIN: Raw linseed. BLO:Boiled Linseed TUNG is well: tung. I burned the lables into the wood so they wont get mixed up.

 
Day 1 Coat #1:

The Raw Linseed oil is a yellow oil. It feels like canola oil on your fingers. The wood sucked it up right away, it took a couple of dabs with the finger to get it to coat. I left it to sit for 20 mins.

The BLO is also yellow oil, i expected it to be thinner but its not much different in consistancy. It smells a little more like paint thinner then the fragrant linseed, but the linseed smell is present. It went on the same way, seemed to soak in a little quicker then the raw linseed.

The tung is clear and a lit thinner then the linseed. It feels more like varsol in on your fingers but thats a bit of a stretch. It went on quite differently. It doesnt spread on the wood the same a the linseed and took more dabs from the can to coat the piece. It soaked into the wood the quickest of the 3.




Left to right, tung, boiled, raw.

After the 20 mins, i wiped each off. There was more residual oil on the two linseed samples and very little on the tung. All three wiped down to a beautiful finish that was not tacky but oiled.



I will let them sit overnight and coat again tomorrow.
 
Day 2, Coat 2:

Ok today I put the 2nd coat on each piece. Overnight the pieces dried up nicely. All three felt smooth and dry to the touch. No nightmares with sticky never to dry raw linseed yet!

Heres what they looked like before the 2nd coat, after drying all night:


The 2nd coat went on just as easy as the first. I poured a bit of tung on the wood this time instead of just wetting the tip of my finger in the oil can, then spread it out bu hand. That was easier since the wet finger method was slow yesterday. I found that the linseed samples were slower so soak in the 2nd coat and you can see in the pictures the sheen from the unabsorbed oil.

the right one is the LIN and left is BLO. I was just getting ready to coat the TUNG in that picture.


All three wet before the wipe:


Then all three after the wipe. Looks nice too bad its just a test piece of expensive walnut:


So far no major issues. Little slower uptake of the oil. Still wiped off after 20 mins, after another 20 they are drying nicely.
 
Thanks for doing this! I love tests like this, helps us all.

This seems pretty neck to neck. I think from what I've read so far, I'd try the raw just because they all seem to work so similarly but the raw has a better smell.

Please correct me if I'm missing something.
 
I'm sorry to rain on your parade, but I think you have some issues here.

1) you are NOT using real tung oil. You are using tung oil FINISH that "contains pure tung oil". It also contains VARNISH, which is a plasticised sealant that was not available in WW2. It will perform better, I am sure of it, but it's a modern chemical finish, not hand-rubbed oil.

2) The BLO you are using is also not what was used in WW2. To get real BLO, you should be buying the boutique stuff sold at art stores for mixing with paint, or at Lee Valley. They sell real BLO, but they call it "polymerized linseed oil" or something like that. It's not polymerized in the plastic sense, but true BLO, when boiled, forms polymer chains in its structure. The BLO from Cambodian Tire is just RLO with chemical dryers added in. I think it will perform identically, but is not truly what was available "way back when".

Great idea for this test, though I'd like ot see it repeated with real Tung oil from Lee Valley instead of that tung varnish.
 
SoBored said:
Thanks for doing this! I love tests like this, helps us all.

This seems pretty neck to neck. I think from what I've read so far, I'd try the raw just because they all seem to work so similarly but the raw has a better smell.

Please correct me if I'm missing something.
Click to expand...

Im voting raw so far too, but I'll try not to bias my test yet! The raw linseed went on easy, the wood soaked it right up and it smells fine. So far im supprised that the BLO and Raw linseed are so similar. Id struggle to tell them appart by appearance and the wood finish, and usage. They just smell a little different. The tung doesnt have a very strong smell either. Its thin and soaks in way faster.

Im interested to see what happens as the coats add up. Will I have to coat them at different rates because of the dryingtime? We'll see. Stay tuned:)

Once ive got a whack of coats on, Im planning on putting all the test pieces in an airtight ziploc container with a pound of silica gel to test the ability of the oils to prevent dry-out. Im also trying to think up a good way to test for moisture resistance. Any ideas would be awesome.
 
Claven2 said:
I'm sorry to rain on your parade, but I think you have some issues here.

1) you are NOT using real tung oil. You are using tung oil FINISH that "contains pure tung oil". It also contains VARNISH, which is a plasticised sealant that was not available in WW2. It will perform better, I am sure of it, but it's a modern chemical finish, not hand-rubbed oil.

2) The BLO you are using is also not what was used in WW2. To get real BLO, you should be buying the boutique stuff sold at art stores for mixing with paint, or at Lee Valley. They sell real BLO, but they call it "polymerized linseed oil" or something like that. It's not polymerized in the plastic sense, but true BLO, when boiled, forms polymer chains in its structure. The BLO from Cambodian Tire is just RLO with chemical dryers added in. I think it will perform identically, but is not truly what was available "way back when".

Great idea for this test, though I'd like ot see it repeated with real Tung oil from Lee Valley instead of that tung varnish.
Click to expand...

I don't think you rained on his parade. It's still an excellent test as these are the products most of us would use today. Can't wait for the results as I have several stocks in need of refinishing.
 
Claven2 said:
I'm sorry to rain on your parade, but I think you have some issues here.

1) you are NOT using real tung oil. You are using tung oil FINISH that "contains pure tung oil". It also contains VARNISH, which is a plasticised sealant that was not available in WW2. It will perform better, I am sure of it, but it's a modern chemical finish, not hand-rubbed oil.

2) The BLO you are using is also not what was used in WW2. To get real BLO, you should be buying the boutique stuff sold at art stores for mixing with paint, or at Lee Valley. They sell real BLO, but they call it "polymerized linseed oil" or something like that. It's not polymerized in the plastic sense, but true BLO, when boiled, forms polymer chains in its structure. The BLO from Cambodian Tire is just RLO with chemical dryers added in. I think it will perform identically, but is not truly what was available "way back when".

Great idea for this test, though I'd like ot see it repeated with real Tung oil from Lee Valley instead of that tung varnish.
Click to expand...

Yes I admit, my products of choice arent the expensive brands. I cant justify spending 25+ bucks each on a bottle of the good stuff. I agree that the artist quality linseed oil is the top of the line stuff. However its not 1944, Ill use whats at hand for a reasonable cost. I never said the point of this test is to determine with scientific accuracy what they put on garands whist lying in a foxhole in France. Im just trying to shed light on a subject thatis all to often debated but never really tried.

FYI: http://www.swingpaints.com/1802us_can.htm
from the Circa 1850 website: "Circa 1850 Tung Oil is a ready to use finish made with raw tung oil, and does not contain any other oils, resins or varnish."
 
Well I stand corrected then! Last time I saw tung at the hardware store, it clearly was NOT pure tung oil. If you got un-mixed tung oil, then it should perform well and be representative.

Interestingly though, even when the US used tung oil to finish stocks, the troops were given raw linseed oil to apply for maintenance. Go figure.

As for arsenal application of oil, I once saw photos where Longbranch had a rack jig where they dipped entire stock sets into heated (to near boiling) giant vats of linseed oil and left the wood immersed for a period of time (hours, though I don't know how many hours). They were drip dried, left to hand a day or two, then assembled onto rifles. No hand rubbing or anything like that, that's what troops are for!

When you cut a longbranch stock, often the oil has soaked clean through the entire stock, or close enough to it. I imagine the oil, when hot, has better penetrating properties.
 
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Interesting test for sure. One of the questions might be "By putting modern formula BLO on a vintage rifle stock, will it devalue the rifle?" It is a good test of finishes if someone is making or refinishing a more modern rifle though.

As an aside here, it was found that some American troops developed a rash or allergy after they handled captured Japanese rifles. This was attributed to the Tung Oil in the stocks.

There was a WWII movie that was on this Website a while ago, about a furniture manufacturer in England making wood stocks. There were Women without any gloves or protection, pushing the Lee Enfield butt stocks underneath the surface of the oil.
 
Great test.
I use raw linseed oil myself on all my milsurps.
One thing which came to my mind immediately when I saw your test was, it would be interesting if you would have weighed the wood pieces, before and after, and see which of the oils absorbs more.
 
polaris said:
Great test.
I use raw linseed oil myself on all my milsurps.
One thing which came to my mind immediately when I saw your test was, it would be interesting if you would have weighed the wood pieces, before and after, and see which of the oils absorbs more.
Click to expand...

Yeah thats a good idea! Damn i wish Id thought of that.
 
I've used BLO and Tung with good results and I've also used Danish Oil which, depending on whether or not you want a colour change can give you a very nice finish.
 
Claven2 said:
Well I stand corrected then! Last time I saw tung at the hardware store, it clearly was NOT pure tung oil. If you got un-mixed tung oil, then it should perform well and be representative.

Interestingly though, even when the US used tung oil to finish stocks, the troops were given raw linseed oil to apply for maintenance. Go figure.

As for arsenal application of oil, I once saw photos where Longbranch had a rack jig where they dipped entire stock sets into heated (to near boiling) giant vats of linseed oil and left the wood immersed for a period of time (hours, though I don't know how many hours). They were drip dried, left to hand a day or two, then assembled onto rifles. No hand rubbing or anything like that, that's what troops are for!

When you cut a longbranch stock, often the oil has soaked clean through the entire stock, or close enough to it. I imagine the oil, when hot, has better penetrating properties.
Click to expand...

Interesting, I am debating cuting up a few more pieces and submerging them for a bit in the oils. Then cutting those ones up to see how far it penetrated. That would also be an opportunity to weigh them before and after as suggested above. I wont be heating them though ;)
 
Japanese stocks are not finished in tung, they are finished in urushi. REference: Military Rifles of Japan by Honeycutt.

http://www.eurus.dti.ne.jp/~k-yazawa/urushi.html

One of the difficult parts of handling Urushi is most people are allergic to it,
Click to expand...

True fact. Most people will break out in a poison-ivy-like rash if handling wet or powdered urushi. As a polymerized finish, though, it's harmless and an EXCELLENT stock lacquer.
 
jimenez said:
Interesting, I am debating cuting up a few more pieces and submerging them for a bit in the oils. Then cutting those ones up to see how far it penetrated. That would also be an opportunity to weigh them before and after as suggested above. I wont be heating them though ;)
Click to expand...

In the absents of heating the oil (which thins its viscosity) can I suggest mixing the Linseed oil with mineral spirits (which will also thin the viscosity) and carry the oil further into the wood, the way heated oil would have done. The mineral spirits will evaporate, but I would only recommend doing this for the first coat and perhaps the next, then switch to 100% Linseed and hand rub it in.
 
Think you are missing an essential part of the process here.;) I was always told and worked well for me, put small amounts of the oil on and rub with the hand, till it gets hot. Let dry and repeat.

Grizz
 
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